there was no way I was going to give them the money they wanted to do the job. Glad to have some reasonable estimate of the cost though.

Does it seem reasonable that I could drive the car for 7-8 months in AUTO climate control mode after the dealer diagnosed the problem as a bad evaporator and still have cooling capacity ?

I didn't like the diagnosis because they said, "We couldn't find a leak under the hood, so your evaporator is bad."

If Mercedes Benz's sliding quality doesn't take them down, then their poor dealer service departments will. Not to say that all of these are bad but the two in my town bolster no confidence in me.